A first employee of an enterprise may need to instruct a second employee of the enterprise to perform some action when the first employee is away from his or her office. For example, a banker may need to instruct a clerk to transfer money between a client's bank accounts when the banker is at a meeting with the client. To send instructions to perform an action, the first employee typically makes a telephone call to the second employee and asks the second employee to perform the action. If the enterprise is sufficiently large, the second employee might not recognize the voice of the first employee. Consequently, the second employee might not be certain whether he or she should perform the action requested by the first employee. In other words, the second employee is not sure whether the first employee is allowed to perform the action or whether someone is attempting to commit fraud.
To overcome this issue, the enterprise can generate a different authentication code each day. The enterprise then distributes the authentication code of the day to each employee who is authorized to perform the action. When the first employee calls a second employee to request the second employee to perform the action, the second employee asks the first employee to provide the authentication code of the day. If the first employee is unable to provide the authentication code of the day, the second employee refuses to perform the action requested by the first employee. If the first employee is able to provide the authentication code of the day, the second employee performs the action requested by the first employee.
Using an authentication code of the day presents several drawbacks. For example, nothing prevents the second user from writing down the authentication code of the day and fraudulently using the authentication code of the day. In another example, the first user has no assurance that the second user actually performed the action. In yet another example, the second user has no assurance that the first user has received the authentication code of the day in a legitimate manner.